Dries Buytaert and the Drupal development team recently announced two revolutionary products – Drupal Starshot and Experience Builder. These tools promise to greatly simplify the creation of Drupal websites and make this powerful CMS accessible to a wider range of users. Let's take a look at what this means for business owners and organizations considering Drupal for their websites.
Drupal Starshot is a new version of Drupal
Drupal Starshot is not a fork of Drupal, but an aggregation of Drupal Core with the best ecosystem modules and strategic initiatives to make this CMS easier to use.
Key features of Drupal Starshot:
- Convenient ready-made interface. Starshot will provide a fully customized site to get your project up and running quickly.
- Built-in recipes. A set of pre-configured functions and templates for typical tasks.
- Project Browser for searching and installing modules directly from the Drupal interface.
- Automatic updates for site security and stability.
Drupal Starshot will be available as a separate distribution alongside the regular Drupal core, which will continue to be the basis for custom sites.
Fast Start with Drupal Starshot
Drupal Starshot is a Drupal distribution with a set of ready-made components and recipes for typical tasks. It allows you to quickly deploy a basic site and fill it with the necessary functionality, without delving into technical details. For customers, this means:
- Faster site launch. Instead of weeks or months of development, you can get a basic site up and running in just a few days.
- Lower initial costs. Typical functionality is already included in the distribution, so you don't have to pay to develop it from scratch.
- Reliability and security. Drupal Starshot components are tested and supported by the community, so the risks are minimal.
Experience Builder – flexibility for content managers
Experience Builder is a revolutionary module for Drupal Starshot that allows users without technical skills to independently create themes, pages and site content through a user-friendly browser interface. The main benefits of Experience Builder for customers:
- Full control over the site. Now, to change the design or create a new page, there is no need to involve developers. Marketers and content managers can do it themselves.
- Saving money. Most of the routine tasks on the site can be done in-house, and funds can be directed to truly unique features.
- Consistency of design and content. By integrating with Drupal's data structures, Experience Builder will ensure consistency of style and content across pages and sites.
- Effective content management. The materials can be used on different platforms (websites, applications, social networks) without duplication. Powerful import/export tools allow you to quickly update large amounts of content.
Focus on ambitious users
Drupal has always been friendly to users with technical skills, but with new initiatives, the focus is shifting to "ambitious site developers." These are people who want to customize and expand their sites themselves, but do not have deep programming knowledge. Ambitious users are what made Drupal successful. With new products, they will be able to achieve even more:
- Add and configure functionality yourself through the Drupal interface.
- Change design and content without the help of developers
- Involve developers only to implement special features that go beyond built-in capabilities.
New opportunities for business with Drupal
With Starshot and Experience Builder, Drupal will be accessible to many businesses that were previously put off by its complexity. Very soon, you can quickly and relatively inexpensively get a functional site, and then easily and gradually expand its capabilities. At the same time, the traditional advantages of Drupal are preserved - flexibility, security, scalability. Thus, the Drupal site will be able to develop together with your business and adapt to new market needs.
Starshot and Experience Builder will bring Drupal closer to the general public and provide businesses with convenient tools to manage their sites. We expect the new version of Drupal to be available in eight months.
Are you planning a new site or need help with an existing Drupal project? Wishdesk web development company is happy to help you take advantage of Drupal to grow your business. Our team of experienced Drupal developers can help you build a Drupal website that meets your business needs. If you're interested in Drupal Starshot and Experience Builder, drop us a line and we'll let you know when they're available and help you get set up.
